Julia Leigh
Julia Leigh makes her directorial debut this week with Sleeping Beauty - a script that she also penned.
- What were the physical circumstances behind writing the script? Did you have a producer from the outset? What were the early responses? Who was the first person to read it? Is the
script a good representation of the finished film?
I developed the script myself until I got it to a point where I thought it was more or less finished. It’s short - about 67 pages. In 2008 it made the Hollywood ‘Black List’ [Franklin Leonard’s much anticipated annual list of unproduced screenplays].
That same year I was named by Filmmaker Magazine (US) as one of the 25 New Faces of independent film. Even still, many producers turned me down. In the end I found a brave tenacious producer in Jessica Brentnall who recognised the script for what it was and we made a deal that this was the film that would be shot.
During production we did make some small script changes along the way, all for the best. My sister, Claudia, was the first to read the script. I trust her with all my new-borns. My sister, Antonia, sat beside me when I approved the answer print.
That was the first time I saw the film myself, from A-Z, completely finished. We watched it at Stageone Sound, the post facility. Giving the approval was my version of crossing the finish line.
It was the pure moment of accomplishment, utterly independent of how the film would be received in the world. In reality I still had plenty of work to do after the answer print but personal rituals, private calendars, made for a secret sustaining energy.
- You hadn’t made a film before, how did you prepare yourself for this shift?
To demonstrate my vision for the film I wrote a long ‘director’s treatment’ in which I described exactly what we would see on screen scene-by-scene. This was not that difficult because when I wrote the film I ‘saw it’ in my mind’s eye. The ‘observing camera’ was there from the moment of conception.
The tender steady witness. The chamber point-of-view. It worked for this story which explores a sense of being watched. The audience is involved and almost complicit. I also found images that went some way to evoking the ‘tone’ of the film.
I pulled short clips from a range of different films. I watched films that I admired with the sound down, constantly asking myself ‘where’s the camera?’. I read books on acting, went to a workshop. I watched ‘making of’s’ on DVD.
I attended some filmmaker masterclasses. I observed on a friend’s set. I worked with a storyboard artist. I carefully blocked the mise-en-scene with the help of Geoffrey Simpson, my DP. I paid great attention to visual transitions. I did all that I could to be prepared. I didn’t wing it.
- How different is filmmaking from the process of writing a novel?
In a way my literary background is my cinema background: one and the same thing. My ‘background’ is my sensibility. The novelist and the filmmaker both work with the ‘flow of time’.
They both work with ‘character’. They both create detailed full worlds and they both have something they want to explore. I’d say the perceived loneliness of the writer is not so dissimilar to that of the director’s - because as the director I was the only one holding the whole film in my head.
The foundations are the same. Other than that, the whole process is completely different. I did not imagine the worst; I couldn’t afford to look down. I was vigilant about all the small things.
I told myself that if I created the right conditions and held the line then something good would come from it (that was the leap of faith). I am comfortable in the risk zone.
- Who were your collaborators?
One of my first key collaborators to come on board was Annie Beauchamp, production designer. We had the advantage of shooting in our home town so together we’d go out location scouting, very early on in the process.
We pooled images. We defined our palette. Because we had a relatively low budget our challenge was to figure out where to allocate the money.
It was a big expense to build the chamber set but we decided it was worth it. I was deeply impressed by the entire art department’s resourcefulness and ingenuity.
I worked very closely with my wonderful editor, Nick Meyers. Symptoms of editing, of watching the same images over and over: I picked up character mannerisms; I used lines from the film in my daily life; I went to sleep and woke up with grabs of the film playing in my head; I noticed every visual detail my kitchen had never looked so drab and dirty.
An unsung role is that of the colourist, Olivier Fontenay. We shot on 35mm film and then went to a digital intermediate. Smoothing out the visual tone was important for this film where we hold long shots and the audience really gets to see everything. It’s not like we could flash a two-second image and hope to get away with it.
- What were the circumstances behind Jane Campion’s involvement?
I was introduced to Jane Campion by the principal investor, Screen Australia. She read the script, we met, and she thankfully agreed to come on board as a mentor. It was at a period when it seemed our funding might fall through and her support was an element which helped shore things up.
We continued to meet through pre-production and we always knew she wouldn’t be available for the shoot. We reconnected in post-production. Throughout the process she reminded me to stay attuned to my instinct, to respond energetically, to service the film.
She suggested skillful ways in which I could discuss particular issues with my key collaborators. She [Jane Campion] wrote me an email after seeing an early cut. I approved the answer print on 12 October 2010.
Between June and October I must have read her heartening message about twenty times. There were many occasions when I was being battered in the high seas. Her encouragement was vital comfort and ballast. She could not have been more generous. I think of her as a part of the film.
- Why Emily Browning for the role of Lucy?
Emily Browning did a great test: I couldn’t take my eyes off her. When we spoke it was clear that the script resonated with her. She was brave; she is brave. She made the material her own in the best possible way.
I love the latent tip-of-the-iceberg feeling you get when watching Emily on screen. The sense of a quiet and deliberate recklessness. Emily side-stepped the major danger of self-pity. She made many brilliant subtle choices.
It was a demanding role and we had some big days. Mutual trust was vital to the process. I realise how lucky I was to work with Emily on my first outing as a director.
- And the other actors?
I would never say this to an actor but I do feel a strange kind of love for them in their roles. I knew Rachael Blake from Lantana and had a soft spot for her in the TV series Wildside. I find her incredibly beautiful. I wanted to avoid an overly ‘stern’ Clara. Rachael brought a depth to the role, a sense of hard-won worldly experience, a mix of genuine care for Lucy and callousness.
She is a keeper of secrets. During rehearsal I had a woman instruct Rachael in the art of the Japanese tea ceremony. This was partly to learn the steps of the ceremony but also to observe the poise and calm control of the teacher.
I knew Ewen Leslie from his outstanding theatre roles and the film Jewboy. He came onto the film very early, I didn’t test anyone else for the role. He was a true supporter of the
project as a whole and as a first-time director that trust in me was deeply appreciated. He is beautiful as Lucy’s friend, Birdmann. Lucy takes care of him; they take care of one another.
Safe harbour for those who refuse to be ‘well adjusted’. You want him to put his arm around you. Peter Carroll is a legend of the Australian theatre. I needed to cast someone who could transmit the character’s ‘truest wisdom’ directly to the audience.
Someone who despite everything was sympathetic in his own way, someone who embodied a calm - if broken - dignity. Very simply, I love his face. I think it was on the fourth take that Peter nailed his monologue. Miraculously, there was no ADR.
- What was the thinking behind the film’s sound design?
Sam Petty and I pushed the sound design as far as we could. The restrained visual style required restraint in the sound world. I wanted the audience’s attention to grow acute, I wanted the on-edge feeling you get when ‘you could have heard a pin drop’.
We used a minimal score to subtly enhance the disturbing magic of the sleeping beauty world (not minimal music itself but a minimal amount, less than 10 min). Around the time I began looking for a composer I received an email announcing Ben Frost’s involvement as Brian Eno’s protégé in the Rolex program.
I followed up and it turned out Ben had been commissioned by a friend of mine in Krakow to compose a new score for Tarkovsky’s ‘Solaris’. Ben was in Iceland; I was in Sydney. There was a clear brief.
Ben sent through a generous amount of material which Sam Petty and I tried out against the film. We then sent back our selections for Ben’s fine tuning. It was a deeply satisfying collaboration.
- What do you hope to leave the audience with?
My hope is that the film allows the audience to use its imagination.
Sleeping Beauty is out now.
Julia Leigh makes her directorial debut this week with Sleeping Beauty - a script that she also penned.
- What were the physical circumstances behind writing the script? Did you have a producer from the outset? What were the early responses? Who was the first person to read it? Is the
script a good representation of the finished film?
I developed the script myself until I got it to a point where I thought it was more or less finished. It’s short - about 67 pages. In 2008 it made the Hollywood ‘Black List’ [Franklin Leonard’s much anticipated annual list of unproduced screenplays].
That same year I was named by Filmmaker Magazine (US) as one of the 25 New Faces of independent film. Even still, many producers turned me down. In the end I found a brave tenacious producer in Jessica Brentnall who recognised the script for what it was and we made a deal that this was the film that would be shot.
During production we did make some small script changes along the way, all for the best. My sister, Claudia, was the first to read the script. I trust her with all my new-borns. My sister, Antonia, sat beside me when I approved the answer print.
That was the first time I saw the film myself, from A-Z, completely finished. We watched it at Stageone Sound, the post facility. Giving the approval was my version of crossing the finish line.
It was the pure moment of accomplishment, utterly independent of how the film would be received in the world. In reality I still had plenty of work to do after the answer print but personal rituals, private calendars, made for a secret sustaining energy.
- You hadn’t made a film before, how did you prepare yourself for this shift?
To demonstrate my vision for the film I wrote a long ‘director’s treatment’ in which I described exactly what we would see on screen scene-by-scene. This was not that difficult because when I wrote the film I ‘saw it’ in my mind’s eye. The ‘observing camera’ was there from the moment of conception.
The tender steady witness. The chamber point-of-view. It worked for this story which explores a sense of being watched. The audience is involved and almost complicit. I also found images that went some way to evoking the ‘tone’ of the film.
I pulled short clips from a range of different films. I watched films that I admired with the sound down, constantly asking myself ‘where’s the camera?’. I read books on acting, went to a workshop. I watched ‘making of’s’ on DVD.
I attended some filmmaker masterclasses. I observed on a friend’s set. I worked with a storyboard artist. I carefully blocked the mise-en-scene with the help of Geoffrey Simpson, my DP. I paid great attention to visual transitions. I did all that I could to be prepared. I didn’t wing it.
- How different is filmmaking from the process of writing a novel?
In a way my literary background is my cinema background: one and the same thing. My ‘background’ is my sensibility. The novelist and the filmmaker both work with the ‘flow of time’.
They both work with ‘character’. They both create detailed full worlds and they both have something they want to explore. I’d say the perceived loneliness of the writer is not so dissimilar to that of the director’s - because as the director I was the only one holding the whole film in my head.
The foundations are the same. Other than that, the whole process is completely different. I did not imagine the worst; I couldn’t afford to look down. I was vigilant about all the small things.
I told myself that if I created the right conditions and held the line then something good would come from it (that was the leap of faith). I am comfortable in the risk zone.
- Who were your collaborators?
One of my first key collaborators to come on board was Annie Beauchamp, production designer. We had the advantage of shooting in our home town so together we’d go out location scouting, very early on in the process.
Tagged in Sleeping Beauty